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Go back to page 1... Fruit Pickers' Summer of Squalor, (posted 8/11/98) Local News : Sunday, August 02, 1998 As Washington's $1.7 billion tree-fruit industry booms to record harvests, the state is losing ground in the battle for decent housing for tens of thousands of farmworkers who bring in the crop. Gray light seeps through the pines as first one car door, then another, creaks opens. It is barely 4 a.m. as this encampment awakens. Families yawn from cars and tents, and stumble amid piles of beer bottles, clotheslines strung with raw meat and grocery sacks stuffed with clothing. The morning fills with hasty rituals of ablution: feet shoved into shoes damp with dew, a toothbrush stuck in a stump to keep it out of the dirt; the rustle of bushes pressed into use as a bathroom. A nearby stream serves as kitchen sink, laundry, shower and, sometimes, toilet for the 60 or so migrant pickers camped here for the brief cherry harvest. "It's part of the battle of life," says Eloisa Alonzo, 56, groggy after a poor night's sleep in the back of a car. The camp, perched on Department of Natural Resources land outside Wenatchee, empties within minutes as the workers head for the cherry trees on Stemilt Hill. There they will provide the delicate, arduous labor needed to harvest some of the most profitable orchard land in Washington. As they leave, Alonzo goes to work in her woodland kitchen - under a blue plastic tarp stretched atop a length of irrigation pipe. She shreds cooked chicken meat, left unrefrigerated overnight, into a vat of chili. She leans to her elbows in the red sauce, stirring with her hands, making the first of hundreds of tamales she hopes to sell in the orchards that day. For seven years, Alonzo and her mobile tamale kitchen have trailed the harvest, from crop to crop, while the men in her family pick the fruit - oranges in California, then cherries and, finally, apples, in Washington. They travel together, a family of seven spanning three generations. Alonzo's 6-month-old great grandson stays tucked in the tent, his stuffed animals lying outside in the dirt "It is very hard like this," says Alonzo. "You see us, how we walk around on the earth like pigs? It makes me feel embarrassed for you to see how we live." Changing the Consciousness in the U.S. about Latinos/as (long version), (posted 8/11/98) by Estevan Flores, Ph.D. Latinos have recently served as Secretaries of Energy and Transpor-tation and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. We are represented in every profession as teachers, professors, musicians, legislators, admin-istrators, doctors, astonauts, actors, writers, presidents of universities and owners of businesses large and small. We have plentiful skills and talents and we exercise considerable leadership in society. Yet many perceive Latinos as poor, criminals, drug users. Taco Bell's ads of "Dinkie" the chihuahua are little better than the "Frito Bandito" of 30 years ago. Even as we continue to struggle for equality of access to opportunity, conservative forces seek to dismantle the tools which expanded our access in society (e.g., California's Proposition 237 or Texas' Hopwood Decision. Those of us who know the strengths, skills, talents or assets of the Latina/o community, know that our attributes far out weigh are failings, as in any community. The issue for us is how to overcome the decades of racist insensitivity that has shut us out of centers of power, learning and decision making and put our best intellects and talents forward. How will we change the consciousness in this country about who Latinos really are? One way is to highlight the huge changes we have made in the cultural, artistic and intellectual landscape of the southwest and other regions of the U.S. One issue for us is how to overcome the decades of racist insensitivity and show how we now at the centers of power, learning and decision making. The Latino/a Research & Policy Center (LRPC) is proud to be a part of an effort to change the national consciousness about Latinos. Working to achieve this goal for Colorado, the LRPC joins its efforts with two notable national projects, the new Center for Latino Initiatives (CLI) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (or IUPLR) at the University of Texas at Austin. The CLI represents the first time Latinos have been the focus aCenter at the Smithsonian. It will go a long way toward changing consciousness about Latinos in the U.S. Conferences, symposia and exhibits will highlight our intellectual, artistic, cultural and political works. The CLI is a long-term project of the IUPLR, a consortium of 13 Latino Centers across the country including the Gaston Research Institute at UMass Boston and Stanford's Chicano Studies Research Center. This past year, the Latino/a Research & Policy Center joined the IUP as an affiliate and attended the IUP's Board of Director's meeting and mini-conference in January.Our participation with the IUPLR offers us a forum for the concerted and systematic exchange of ideas as well as the development of multi-site research and policy initiatives. In our view, the LRPC's efforts, with 46 "Faculty Research Associates" (13 from UC-Denver), and 39 "Community Associates" and a 16 member Advisory Council composed of civic and community leaders, represents the cutting edge. Most other centers offer majors of study or emphasize curriculum development and research. Few systematically address policy analysis. Only the LRPC brings community leaders together with university facultyfor an emphasis on rigorous research, policy analysis and implementation. We have a unique role to play in Coloradoas we attempt to improve the quality of life for Latinos and Chicanos in our state. To change the consciousness of race conscious America about Latinos/as is no small charge and we hope that our children and grand children bear the fruits of today's labor. These are exciting yet challenging times as we fashion innovative approaches and strategies to problems and issues. Since July of last year, the Center has formed two "working groups," one in health and the other in education, to address unmet community needs, gaps in research and policy issues pertinent to the Latino/a community. Besides the working groups, the Center held two policy symposiums and one day-long academic symposium with 16 presentations. The first policy symposium was a "Latino Legislative Symposium" held at the state capitol on the first day of the 1998 legislative session while the second policy symposium focused on educational equality. Through the working groups, forums, symposiums, conferences, publications from research findings (monographs and a journal), the Latino/a Research & Policy Center will communicate findings and policy recommendations to the public, policy makers, and other decision makers. In dialogue with these publics, we hope to ultimately improve the quality of life for all in Colorado and beyond. The first year's work ahs been to build a solid foundation from which to grow, mindful of our community commitments and academic base. We are proud to be a part of a national agenda, the IUP and the Center for Latino Initiatives at the Smithsonian. We have much work to do. ADELANTE Y CON EXITO! Estevan Flores is a sociologist and Director of the Latino/a Research & Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Denver. He can be reached via e-mail or at 303/556-6705. The 'Migra-ization' Of the Police, (posted 8/11/98)
An incredible drama is unfolding in the field of immigration enforcement, not in New York, Illinois, Florida, Texas or California, but in Utah. Pending a final "Memorandum of Understanding," law enforcement officers in Salt Lake City will soon be performing limited immigration-enforcement duties. The agreement is expected to grant local police officers the right to transport suspected undocumented immigrant criminals to the nearest immigration centers in Nevada or Colorado. The implications of this proposed one-year pilot project, made possible by the nation's 1996 immigration reform law, is being watched closely by civil and human rights activists and law enforcement officials nationwide. Human rights activists fear that if Attorney General Janet Reno deems the project successful, she will expand the project nationally, while greatly expanding the immigration enforcement authority of "deputized" police officers. Immigration officers already have too much latitude in questioning and apprehending "suspected illegal aliens." Despite court rulings that prohibit the discriminative questioning of suspects based on race, many people are routinely questioned because they have brown skin and speak Spanish. This often leads to "mistakes" during immigration raids in which U.S. citizens and legal immigrants are often snared in these illegal sweeps. The discriminative questioning of people-regardless of their legal status-is illegal according to U.S. laws and is in clear violation of international human rights covenants. The American Friends Service Committee's immigration project in Houston has long documented these unconstitutional practices. Now, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) has also begun to document them and has found that these abuses and selective raids-which sometimes have included roadblocks and house-to-house searches-are taking place in virtually every region of the country. One notorious case took place in the summer of 1997 in Chandler, Ariz., involving raids where hundreds of U.S. citizens and legal residents were illegally detained by both Immigration and Naturalization Service agents and police officers. In an infamous case in 1994 in Katy, Texas, illegal "street sweeps" were conducted jointly between police officers and the INS. As a result of some of the recent brutal raids, particularly in Florida, the INS has issued new guidelines in which agents must have probable cause to conduct these operations, noted Joel Najar, an NCLR analyst. Salt Lake City itself, where the agreement is pending, was the site of a particularly nasty incident, carried out jointly between police officers, Drug Enforcement Administration and INS agents in April 1997. Seventy-five agents carried out an extremely violent immigration raid at a Mexican bakery. One drug arrest was made and the charge was later dropped in court. "It was an immigration raid disguised as a drug raid," said Najar. Deputizing police officers to do immigration work is cause for alarm. While the Utah situation is purportedly unique in that they are limiting the powers of police officers to the transportation of known undocumented criminals, the agreement has all the markings of a "slippery slope," particularly since only Latino immigrants are being singled out, said Chris Segura, executive director of the Utah Coalition of La Raza. Police officers who are not trained in the nation's complex immigration laws, most likely will also be making costly mistakes, at the expense of brown people everywhere. Worse, it also represents the federalization of police officers. It goes against the trend in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, where police departments have long held policies against working with the INS. The policies are in place because of peoples' fear of the "migra," which is slang for an INS agent. Failure to trust officers means less cooperation from crime witnesses and more crime. In Utah, the police could have lots of civilian help in ferreting out "illegal aliens." Congressman Chris Cannon, R-Utah, recently mailed out a questionnaire asking his constituents whether they had been the victim of a crime perpetuated by an illegal alien. Cannon was quoted in the Salt Lake City Star Tribune as saying, "Often in a community, people know who is undocumented and who is not." Apparently, not everyone does. We recently obtained statistics gathered by Salt Lake County Commissioner Mary Callaghan's office that attributes crime to "suspected illegal aliens." They carry a disclaimer that states, "These statistics are based on suspected alien status without verification from INS or other sources." "These are the same statistics that Cannon and Sen. Orrin Hatch are using to make it seem as though it is Mexicans causing all the problems," said Segura. "It's the big lie." COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Eleven Cuban Illegals Sent Home, (posted 8/11/98) Cubans returned to homeland (Miami, August 5, 1998) Eleven Cubans who the U-S Coast Guard rescued from a 12-foot raft off Key West are back on their home island. Five were taken by a Coast Guard cutter to Bahia de Cabanas yesterday morning. The remaining six were taken on another boat to Freeport, Bahamas and flown from there to Guantanamo Bay, the U-S Navy base in Cuba. The eleven were picked up from a raft 40 miles off Key West late last month. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents interviewed them and decided they should be sent back to their Communist homeland. In a separate incident, 21 Cuban migrants were taken by the Coast Guard yesterday to be interviewed by the I-N-S. Minnesota Truck-Safety Checks Yield 13 Mexican Illegals, (posted 8/11/98) Troopers nab 13 illegal Mexican immigrants The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul), August 6, 1998 Wednesday began simply enough: State troopers stopping decrepit trucks to make the roads safer. It ended with more than a dozen young roofers on their way back to Mexico. About 8 a.m. Wednesday, two or three state troopers converged at Interstate Hwy. 35W and Cliff Rd. in Burnsville to flag down old trucks with faulty or damaged body parts and equipment. State Patrol Lt. Jay Swanson of the East Metro Division said troopers perform such safety stops every day somewhere in the metropolitan area. He said troopers realized that this wasn't an ordinary day when they noticed that many of the old trucks were occupied by young Mexican men, recently arrived in this country and working to repair storm-damaged roofs. The number of detainees grew larger than the number of troopers, and two of the roofers bolted, Swanson said. With help from Burnsville police and the Dakota County Sheriff's Department, the State Patrol recaptured the men. "We decided to call in the [U.S.] Immigration and Naturalization Service for help," he said. Officers turned over 13 illegal immigrants from Mexico, men between the ages of 18 and 25, to the INS for deportation. They impounded 10 trucks. Marriage Fraud Ring Broken in Upstate New York, (posted 8/11/98) Peruvian man sentenced in marriage brokering ring SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) - A Peruvian man will spend six months in jail for arranging fake marriages between illegal aliens and American citizens. Miguel Angel Jaime, 28, was sentenced Wednesday for his part in an illegal marriage brokering scam that ran out of Schenectady from October 1996 to April 1997. Miguel's sister, Luz Jaime, and two other relatives have already been convicted for conspiracy and felony marriage fraud. Luz Jaime, 33, was reportedly the mastermind of the operation. Police say the Jaimes charged Peruvian aliens up to $7,000 to match them with Schenectady residents in fake marriages. Once married, the illegal aliens could apply for a green card enabling them to stay in the country. The Jaimes then paid the Schenectady residents between $1,000 to $2,000 for their part in the scam. Authorities say the ring operators had the most success recruiting people in the poor neighborhood of Hamilton Hill. Miguel Jaime's conviction was the last in the crackdown, said Gary Hale, Immigration and Naturalization Service agent in Albany. Thirty-five illegal aliens from Peru have been arrested and deported since the investigation began, he said. The Schenectady citizens involved in the fake marriages have not been charged. Authorities say they have cooperated with the federal investigation. "The U.S. Attorney's Office has aggressively prosecuted those involved in arranged marriages and wants to send a signal that this type of fraud will not be tolerated in the Capital Region (of New York)," Hale said. 39 Smuggled Illegals Found in Arizona Hotel Room, (posted 8/11/98) Illegal aliens discovered before reaching Florida, North Carolina MESA, Ariz. (AP) - An alleged attack on a girlfriend led authorities to a motel room crammed with illegal aliens who were being smuggled to Florida and North Carolina, authorities said. Shawna Wagle of Florida told police Wednesday that her boyfriend, Miguel, had punched her in the face and could be found in a room at the motel. When police checked the room, they found it filled with undocumented Mexicans, some lying under the bed and others jammed into the closet, Lt. Greg Penrose said. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents were called and found 39 illegal aliens - a dozen in another room, others in a van and still more on the motel grounds. They included at least five females, two of them in their teens. Wagle, whose home town wasn't available, told police she knew nothing about the aliens and didn't know her boyfriend's last name. He wasn't among those authorities corralled. Hank Woodrum, acting INS deputy district director, said the aliens were to have been taken to Florida and North Carolina by smugglers who had driven across the country to get them. "It's not something we see every day," Woodrum said. "The more typical smuggling rings ... are organized from here, rather than the East Coast." Woodrum said the aliens would be questioned and be allowed to return to Mexico voluntarily. No one had been charged with smuggling by late Wednesday. Illegals in Van Accident on the Way to Kentucky Farms, (posted 8/11/98) INS says victims of I-70 van-truck crash were illegal aliens KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The victims in the fatal crash of a van and a truck on Interstate 70 near Boonville were illegal aliens on their way to the Kentucky tobacco harvest, officials said. Three people were killed in the accident east of Boonville early Tuesday. Ten people were hospitalized. The conditions of all but one of the seven people taken to the University of Missouri hospital were upgraded to fair by Wednesday. One person remained in serious condition. Three people taken to Cooper County Memorial Hospital after the accident had been released and were in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Kansas City, said Mike Heston, the INS district director. A removal hearing would be held for them and for the others as they are released from the hospital, Heston said Wednesday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified those who died as Filiberto Salano, Anibal Perez and Agarito Perez. The ages and hometowns of the dead and injured were not known, the patrol said. None spoke English. Heston said the illegal aliens apparently had been working in the agriculture industry in Washington state, and were moving on to jobs in Kentucky. He said it was not known how long they had been in the country. There were 13 people in the van-nine Mexicans and four Guatemalans, Heston said. He said two of the Guatemalans were women and the others in the van were men. Two boys aged 16 and 17 were in the group. The accident happened about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday when a tractor-trailer slammed into the stopped van in the driving lane on I-70. The van seemed to be intent on making a U-turn at the time of the accident in light rain and fog, said patrol Cpl. Scott Simmons. The van did not have its lights on despite the reduced visibility.Both vehicles overturned in a ditch along the right side of the highway. The driver of the truck was not hurt. One man fled the van and ran into a nearby cornfield. He was caught a short time later suffering from a minor back injury, and was one of the three being held in INS custody in Kansas City. Both Simmons and Heston said the man apparently ran because he was scared and traumatized by the accident. Los Angeles County Will Fight Bilingual Education Ban, (posted 8/11/98) L.A. joins efforts to kill Prop. 227 LOS ANGELES (AP)-- The City Council has agreed to join legal efforts to overturn Proposition 227, which virtually purged bilingual education from public schools in California. The council voted 11-3 Tuesday to file a "friend of the court" brief in a lawsuit filed by civil rights and Hispanic groups, after a majority of the council members said they believe the city must take a stand because the issue affects city residents. Hal Bernson, Cindy Miscikowski and Rudy Svorinich dissented. State voters in June overwhelmingly approved Prop. 227, which virtually eliminated bilingual education classes with its decree that children in the nation's most populous state should be taught "overwhelmingly" in English. Councilman Richard Alatorre urged his colleagues to vote in the interest of children's civil rights instead of being afraid to speak out against a majority of voters, saying they were probably better informed than voters were about the issue. "I'm not saying people were ignorant when they voted for Proposition 227. I just don't think they had all the information on how important this program is," Alatorre said. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, a former teacher and school board member, said she believes bilingual education, like special education or gifted programs, can't be "voted away." The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school district, began implementing the new law Monday. Three days earlier, a federal appeals court refused to grant an injunction that would have prevented the measure from taking effect. Critics say the law is the latest strike against immigrants in California, where voters have already stripped illegal immigrants of health, education and welfare benefits, and the University of California has banned affirmative action. "I become concerned when a measure such as this ... appear directed at a single group," City Councilwoman Laura Chick said. "That's not something we can afford at this time." HIV-positive Immigrant Wants Disability Benefits, (posted 8/11/98) Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer Defying U.S. immigration policy, a New Zealander with AIDS stepped off a plane at San Francisco International Airport yesterday to fight for disability benefits he says he earned over nearly 30 years as a resident of the United States. A weary Christopher Arnesen greeted a passel of lawyers and reporters at the U.S. Customs office after flying from his native country, risking detention in prison by immigration authorities. "At this stage, I don't know if I'll be allowed to stay," Arnesen said. "But I was planning to come out of here in handcuffs." Instead, Arnesen cleared a significant hurdle: He was allowed back into the United States despite a 1993 federal law forbidding HIV-positive foreigners from entering the country. Now he must persuade the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to let him to stay long enough to fight for Social Security disability benefits he says he is entitled to now that he is ill. From 1966 to 1994, the 56-year-old New Zealander lived in San Francisco as a permanent resident and paid Social Security taxes the same as any U.S. citizen. A tour guide and photographer whose job took him all over the world, Arnesen was told he was out of the country too often to qualify for U.S. citizenship. He says that when he became too sick to work in 1994, a Social Security Administration official told him he had to return to New Zealand and apply for benefits through the U.S. Embassy there. But once he went back, Social Security refused to mail his $680 monthly benefit check to New Zealand because, U.S. officials say, that country has no reciprocal agreement to pay benefits to U.S. citizens permanently residing there. Social Security requires beneficiaries to spend a month in the United States every six months, but Arnesen was prohibited from complying because he had HIV. His plight revived an old and painful issue for people with AIDS. In the late 1980s and early '90s, immigration officials slammed the door on HIV-positive foreigners. Congress made it a law in 1993. Yesterday, Arnesen risked detention and temporary confiscation of his life-saving AIDS drugs. Missing one or two doses of the complex mixture of drugs that many AIDS patients take can be fatal. But Arnesen said that his encounter with immigration service officials turned out to be a congenial one and that he had been told to visit immigration officials again August 17 to determine how long he can stay in the country. Meanwhile, a team of attorneys working pro bono is filing for an immediate hearing in federal court concerning his benefits. "He did everything right," said Kristen Jensen, one of his attorneys. "He paid his taxes better than some people who were born here." Current law ranks HIV among the "loathsome and contagious diseases" that must be kept from entering the country, and Arnesen chose to get some lighthearted mileage from it. He stepped out of Customs with a suitcase that bore the words, "Loathsome, Contagious & Proud." Signs of Mexican Labor Abuse Found, (posted 8/10/98)
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- For the second time in 1998, the U.S. Labor Department has found evidence of labor rights and safety abuses at Mexican factories. The alleged violations at the Itapsa auto parts plant in Mexico City, a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Echlin Inc. will be discussed by labor secretaries from the two countries under the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Workers at the Itapsa plant said thugs were used to intimidate workers before a vote on a union organizing effort in September. An independent union lost that voice-vote, which union officials say was conducted in front of plant executives and thugs. "I think we do see a trend, we see a pattern with freedom of association issues in Mexico, said Irasema Garza, secretary of the Labor Department's National Administrative Office, speaking from Washington in a telephone interview. The office was set up under NAFTA to investigate complaints of labor abuses in the three participating countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. NAFTA rules prohibit all three member countries from reducing labor protection or failing to enforce labor laws. Eight of the nine complaints filed against Mexican workplaces since NAFTA was implemented in 1994 have alleged violations of the right to organize unions. The National Administrative Office has recommended bilateral talks on five of those. Earlier this year, the Labor Department found evidence that Mexican authorities interfered with the rights of workers trying to form an independent labor union at a Tijuana assembly-for-export plant. In their December complaint, workers at the Itapsa plant on the outskirts of Mexico City also said they were given defective safety equipment even though they handle asbestos-laden brake pads. The NAO report said that the plant was assessed "minimal fines for safety violations, but it is unclear whether the company ever paid them. "Questions are raised regarding the efficacy of (health and safety) inspections. These questions are of special concern because of the presence of asbestos and other toxic substances at the plant which have not been adequately monitored, the NAO said in a statement. Under NAFTA rules, Mexico can be assessed fines of up to $50 million for failing to enforce worker safety laws. The other alleged violations can be pursued no further than the consultations. Workers who were fired from the Itapsa plant also said they were attacked by thugs while handing out leaflets outside the factory gate in December. That attack "raises troublesome questions as regards the rights of workers to engage in legitimate organizing activities, the NAO report continued. Workers at the Itapsa plant earn an average of 42 pesos, or about $5.00, a day. © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press Report: Minorities Facing Hurdles in Legal Fields, (posted 8/10/98) By Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent TORONTO (Reuters) - Only a "minuscule" number of minorities hold upper-level legal positions especially in the private sector and more minority women leave the profession than any other group, according to a report released Tuesday. The study, which was conducted by the American Bar Association and distributed at the group's annual meeting, chronicles gains by minority law students and entry-level lawyers since 1986. The report also cites attacks on affirmative action as threatening to stifle minority advancement "for years to come." The study shows that progress has been especially slow for minority women in the profession with the law firm attrition rate for minority women higher than for any other group. "Minority women in all sectors of the profession report that they are 'ghettoized' in certain areas of practice and subject to constant scrutiny by employers who assume that they are incompetent," the report states. Fully 85.7 percent of minority women leave law firms before their seventh year of practice compared to 76.6 percent of minority men and 74.6 percent of all associates. Philip Anderson, a Little Rock, Ark., lawyer who becomes the ABA's president Tuesday, said there have been "real" gains in increasing the number of minorities in the legal field, but "none among us was so naive as to believe we could undo in a short time the damage of centuries of societal and professional racism." Speaking at a news briefing, Anderson said that the progress being made is not adequate and that too many minorities are dropping out of the profession. The study shows that minority representation in the legal profession rose from about 5 percent in 1980 to 7.45 percent in 1990. Of that amount, 45 percent are African-Americans (3.36 percent of the profession); 33 percent are Hispanic (2.49 percent of the profession); 19 percent are Asian-American (1.41 percent of the profession); and 2.5 percent are Native American (.2 percent of the profession). Minority enrollment in law schools has increased to almost 20 percent in 1996, up from 10.6 percent in 1986 and minorities holding associate positions at law firms rose to 10 percent in 1996 up from 5.1 percent in 1985. "Despite their increased entry into the profession, minority representation in most upper-level jobs remains minuscule, especially in the for-profit (private) sector," the report says. The number of minority partners at large law firms has increased less than 2 percent since 1986 and only .6 percent since 1991. Nationwide, minority representation among partners was 2.95 percent in 1996 and 2.97 percent in 1997. The report said minorities are more likely than whites to hold government and public interest jobs and less likely to enter private practice. Only 42.1 percent of African-Americans enter private practice upon graduation compared with 57.3 percent of whites. The study said that minorities who do join law firms report that they are isolated from internal social networks and lack access to clients. The attack on affirmative action, in particular, threatens to stifle minority entry and advancement in the profession for years to come, according the report. It said that minority law school admissions have "plummeted" under "antiaffirmative action" policies in California and Texas. African-American admissions have dropped 80 percent and Hispanic admissions have dropped 50 percent in public law schools in those states. Court Upholds Immigrants' Rights in the Workplace, (posted 8/7/98)
In a decision that significantly broadens the legal rights of undocumented employees, a state appeals court has ruled that they are protected by California's anti-discrimination laws and can sue employers over sexual harassment and other job abuse. The ruling marks the first time that any California court has affirmatively held that undocumented workers have the same workplace rights as other employees. Until now, employers and immigrant rights lawyers had no clear guidance on these rights, resulting in few suits being brought and some employers abusing workers with little fear of legal consequences. Undocumented workers now can sue over such things as being paid less than minimum wage or subjected to unsafe working conditions. It is unclear if this little-noticed rulingóissued last week in a case involving a Los Angeles woman who sued over alleged sexual harassmentówill actually trigger a wave of such lawsuits, given that taking such action could result in deportation. Some employers might be discouraged from hiring and abusing undocumented workers, legal experts said. But the economic incentives for employers to hire such workersófor low-paying jobs that many other people don't wantócould outweigh fear of lawsuits. Several federal courts have previously held that undocumented workers were covered by federal labor and civil rights laws. But last week's state ruling makes it easier for workers to file these cases in California, where they can recover more in damages. Advocates and foes of immigrant rights both praised the rulingóbut for different reasons. Attorneys for several statewide immigrant rights groups said it broadens employment protections for the armies of low-wage undocumented workers, many of whom are exploited but don't report their abuse because they fear retaliation. The ruling "appropriately recognizes that undocumented workers have rights in the workplace," said Thomas Saenz, a regional attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "I hope it serves as a warning that you cannot exploit some workers' immigration status." But critics of illegal immigration praised the ruling because they said it would discourage employers from hiring undocumented workers. "Anything you can do to punish an employer for hiring illegal aliens is a good thing," said Ron Prince, a co-sponsor of Proposition 187, which sought to curb state benefits for illegal immigrants. "Many employers hire illegals to exploit them. If they know they could be made to pay, then they wouldn't hire them in the first place." Complaints of Harassment The ruling paves the way for Isella Murillo, a 27-year-old immigrant from Guadalajara, to pursue her sexual harassment suit against Rite Stuff Foods Inc., a Commerce-based company that processes potato products for restaurants and groceries. Murillo, who worked on the assembly line, was fired from her minimum-wage position in May 1995, after only three months on the job. Rite Stuff officials said they terminated her because she and another female employee had exchanged blows on company premises. But Murillo sued, alleging that she was fired only because she had complained, more than once, about being subjected to unwanted touching, lewd remarks and crude propositions by her immediate supervisor. As Murillo's suit proceeded through the courts, attorneys for Rite Stuff said they discovered that Murillo had presented bogus resident alien and Social Security cards to secure her job. Citing the fake documents, they successfully asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Allen Bascue to toss out the lawsuit. But in an opinion issued last Thursday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles reversed Bascue's decision. California's "employment discrimination statutes apply to undocumented alien employees notwithstanding the illegality of employing them," wrote Justice Vaino H. Spencer for the unanimous panel. "It may be that [Murillo] cannot complain of having lost her employment, in that she was never entitled to it in the first place," Spencer said. "[But] her fraud did not void her employment contract; it merely rendered it voidable should her employer seek to rescind it." The opinion was certified for publication, which means that it could be cited as law in similar cases. Alan G. Saler, an attorney for the Rite Stuff, said he was considering whether to ask the California Supreme Court to strike the opinion from the law books. Immigration rights lawyers said the ruling now offers protection to the most vulnerable workers in California. Undocumented employees are most at risk for exploitation, they say. Many undocumented workers, especially those in the textile, agricultural and restaurant businesses, earn less than the minimum wage. And even though some are subjected to severe discrimination and sexual harassment, they are the last to complain about egregious working conditions, the lawyers say. Carla R. Barboza, a Los Angeles attorney who argued Murillo's appeal, said the appellate panel simply "did the right thing" by explicitly stating that undocumented workers shared the same protections as other employees. "If these workers were not protected, unscrupulous employers would have an incentive to hire them and then victimize them," Barboza said. Did Employer Know of Illegal Status? A key dispute in Murillo's case centers on whether her employers knew that she was illegally present in the United States. In sworn testimony, Murillo said that a company official, identified as Efren Atilano, knew about her illegal status. He sent her to Alvarado Street, between 7th and 8th streets, to obtain illegal documents, she testified. It was the same Atilano who would become her supervisor and alleged harasser. Murillo testified that Atilano would regularly proposition her to go to X-rated movies, would place his hands on her breasts and buttocks while making sexually suggestive remarks, and would grab, hug and attempt to kiss her without her consent. To bolster Murillo's contention that Atilano helped her to secure fake employment documents, Murillo's attorneys, Maria Hanna Joseph and Eli Estrada of Santa Monica, elicited testimony from a Rite Stuff employee that company officials knew many workers were illegal immigrants yet did nothing. Saler, the firm's attorney, denied that. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will now have to resolve that issue when the case returns for trial. Indeed, the Murillo case shows the risk undocumented workers face when they step forward to confront an employer. Attorneys for both parties in the case acknowledged that Murillo could now face deportation if she was referred to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Still, Barboza said the court's opinion in Murillo's case would serve a larger purpose. "It will have a deterrent effect," Barboza said. "Employers will be less inclined to hire undocumented workers and then think they can get away with not abiding by the law." Copyright Los Angeles Times The Significance of Citizenship Status, (posted 8/3/98) The Strawberry Debacle The current spin on the strawberry debacle is understandable, perhaps necessary, not only for the prestige of the labor movement but also for the election appeal process, and I am not suggesting that it be challenged in a public manner. But we won't learn from this episode unless we look beyond the spin. There are important issues to be addressedó in this campaign as elsewhereó regarding organizing methods. Despite the deployment of enormous resources, despite all that can be said about employer opposition and intimidation by anti-UFW workers, and despite (perhaps partly because of...) the purchase of the main organizing target by a pro-union owner, it is evident that the organizing methods employed failed to engage this workforce. But here I want to say a few things about the significance of citizenship status. Overwhelmingly, the strawberry workforce is composed of undocumented Mexican workers. This is one of the unspeakable truths beyond the boundaries of discourse in the labor movement. There's a surprisingly strong consensus among progressive academics who study and support immigrant work organizing that legal status is irrelevant to union organizing efforts. Surprising because not only in the strawberries but everywhere in the U.S.-right around the corner from every campus-union organizers involved in the cutting-edge work of organizing immigrant workers are confronting the unique challenges of organizing these workers. The claim that citizenship status makes no difference for organizing appears to some to be an affirmation of equality and a form of support for organizing these folks: a classsic example of allowing our values to bias our assessment of the facts. While good intentions seem to lie behind academics' neglect of the significance of citizenship status, today's AFL-CIO organizing technicians are a good deal more hard-nosed. I attribute their neglect of the issues (and opportunities) here to unfamiliarity with this particular workforce, to overconfidence (give me the troops and I can make any workforce vote for the union!), and to a narrow-gage approach to union organizing held by some that considers any strategy other than a frontal campaign for recognition and any issue other than "Union Yes!" to be a distraction and a waste of time and resources. What ever the reason for neglect of citizenship status, when we neglect such significant factors reality is liable to teach us painful lesson. In the strawberry campaign, lesson time has arrived. The significance of citizenship status for union organizing derives from far more than the special vulnerability of the undocumented workforce. Because citizenship status is so central to the life and fortunes of these workers, an organizing effort which fails to speak to this issue is unlikely hope to resonate within the workforce. Also, workforces with different citizenship statuses present different kinds of organizing challenges and opportunities, and different kinds of social movement potential. Different issues resonate, different currents flow, different resources are needed, and different factors affect timing and other strategic decisions. I believe that this particular target was chosen based on a strategic analysis of the vulnerability of the industry, conducted by researchers far removed from the realities of farm labor in California. This kind of strategic analysis is a strong suit of the organizing technicians who have gained prominence through SEIU's Justice for Janitors and similar campaigns. But it is far from sufficient to assure that sound decisions or effective leadership. I will later to the bearing of citizenship status on the choice of this workforce as the key target for the UFW and the AFL-CIO leadership. Once we decide to organize a predominately undocumented workforce, however, we must have a positive message about the rights of undocumented workers. We cannot evade the issue. So the next posting starts here. Paul Johnston Blacks, Hispanics Still Behind Whites In Level of PC Ownership, Net Access, (posted 8/3/98) The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition-July 29, 1998 WASHINGTON-Even in the midst of Internet mania, about half as many black and Hispanic households own a personal computer as their white counterparts, and about a third as many have on-line access-and the disparity is growing. A study released Tuesday by the Commerce Department found that 19.3% of black households and 19.4% of Hispanic households own a PC, compared with 40.8% of white households. In 1994, just as the Internet had given consumers a new reason to own a PC, 10.3% of black households owned one, compared with 12.3% of Hispanic homes and 27.1% of whites. As for the Internet, 7.7% of black homes have on-line access, compared with 8.7% of Hispanics and 21.2% of white homes. Figures for 1994, when the last study was done, weren't available. Even black households with relatively high income levels didn't bridge the gap. Among households with annual income levels above $75,000, whites, at 76.3%, are still more likely to have PCs than blacks, at 64.1%. The report, commissioned by Vice President Al Gore, also highlighted profiles of the "least connected" Americans, which included the rural poor; rural and central-city minorities; female-headed households; and households headed by people younger than 25. The department said that although all racial groups now own more computers than they did in 1994, "blacks and Hispanics now lag even further behind whites in their levels of PC ownership and on-line access." Non-Hispanic minorities, which include Asian-Americans, have the highest number of households with PCs, at 47%, and Internet access, at 25.2%. Mr. Gore used the study to defend a multibillion-dollar plan to subsidize Internet hookups for schools and libraries. Phone and other telecommunications companies fund the subsidies via universal service fees charged to customers. Lawmakers have criticized the program as boosting consumer telephone bills. Analysts were at a loss to explain why the technology gap grew faster between minority and white households during the past four years. "With the explosion of all these Internet companies and with computer prices falling, we not only need to understand why there are groups that are being left out, but why things are getting increasingly worse," said Donna Hoffman, a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. She co-wrote a study on race and Internet use published in April. Some suspect that minorities aren't embracing the Information Age because PC makers and Internet-service providers aren't targeting them in marketing efforts. "It's still a financial decision," said E. David Ellington, chief executive of NetNoir Inc., an Internet service based in San Francisco geared toward blacks. "Maybe minorities feel there's nothing there for them yet." He noted that "blacks have consistently adapted to technology. Three years into the Internet industry, it's too early to be panicked." - John Simons contributed to this article. Liberians rally to protect status, (posted 8/3/98) A proposal by Sen. Jack Reed offers hope to Liberian immigrants who face deportation after Sept. 28. By JOHN E. MULLIGAN WASHINGTON-More than 200 Liberians-most of them from Rhode Island- rallied outside the Capitol yesterday for legislation that would prevent their imminent deportation. "Employers are starting to send our people letters" demanding proof of legal immigrant status, said Moses Saygbe, of Providence, president of the Liberian Community Association. In a brief speech under sweltering midday skies, Sen. Jack Reed offered the visitors hope that Congress will soon act to extend a special immigration status that is set to expire for more than 8,000 Liberians in the United States on Sept. 28. The Senate has passed a measure, authored by Reed, to extend for one year the Liberians' eligibility for "temporary protected status," or TPS-a small program for foreigners who have fled civil war or natural disaster in fewer than 10 nations. Representatives Patrick J. Kennedy and Robert A. Weygand later spoke in favor of Reed's measure. They said that if Reed's bill becomes law, it will buy time for the Liberians to push for permanent status in the next Congress. That could be a steppingstone to full citizenship, making them eligible for various kinds of federal aid unavailable to TPS immigrants. Saygbe said there are up to 12,000 Liberians in Rhode Island, 3,000 of whom face possible deportation. Some congressional staffers said, however, that accurate numbers of resident Liberians are hard to come by. Liberians who fled the civil war that erupted in their West African country in 1987 won the temporary status in March 1991 and have since had it renewed annually. This year, however, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno accepted the State Department's recommendation to let the protected status for Liberians lapse, because the civil war is over and democratic elections were held there last year. But the visitors from Rhode Island-one of the nation's largest Liberian enclaves-argued that those circumstances don't make it safe to return to their devastated land, particularly for political opponents of President Charles Taylor. Reed's measure, part of the Senate spending bill for next year's operation of the Departments of Commerce, State and Justice, is absent from the House's counterpart version, which may be voted on next week. The Liberians' hopes are, therefore, focused on the House-Senate conference committee that will hash out differences between the two versions of the huge appropriations bill. The immigrants hope the conferees will accept Reed's 12-month extension of their status. But that won't happen until after Labor Day, when Congress returns from its summer vacation, so the prospects for enactment of Reed's extension before Sept. 28 are dicey. Reed's office said that if it becomes clear Congress is moving to accept Reed's measure, the Immigration and Naturalization Service won't immediately move to deport Liberians, even if their TPS status expires Sept. 28. In a meeting with staffers from the Senate committee in charge of the legislation and from Sen. John H. Chafee's office, however, the Liberians were warned to prepare for the possibility that the extension won't become law. Chafee's staff said he will ask fellow senators to sign a letter he plans to send to Reno, urging her to reconsider extending the Liberians' protected status. A staffer from the Senate Appropriations Committee warned Saygbe's group not to push their case for permanent status too hard, because it may complicate the short-term campaign for the 12-month extension proposed by Reed. Competing pleas from immigrant groups for various kinds of favorable status are a continual-and controversial-feature of congressional business. Congressional relief for such groups often creates tension with federal officials who believe it undercuts their pursuit of consistent immigration policy. Kennedy said the United States has a special "moral obligation" to help the Liberians because their nation was founded by freed American slaves in 1847. Kennedy acknowledged that refugees from Haiti and other beleaguered lands also have compelling cases for special status, but he said the Republican majority in the current Congress is generally hostile to the pleas of immigrants in such cases. As for the Clinton administration's decision not to extend the TPS program for Liberians, Reed said, "I don't think it's directed particularly against the Liberians so much as it comes from the worry of setting a precedent" that other immigrant groups might insist on enjoying. Saygbe's worries yesterday were much more concrete: "If people are forced from their jobs" because of the deportation threat, he said, "they cannot support their families." Panel Votes to Nix INS Enforcement, (posted 8/3/98) By Michelle Mittelstadt WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vexed by persistent problems within the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a House subcommittee voted Thursday to strip the agency of its enforcement powers. By voice vote, the House Justice immigration subcommittee approved a bill by Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., that would create a new Bureau of Enforcement and Border Affairs to handle policing of the nation's borders and its immigration laws. The bureau would be in the Justice Department, as is the INS. INS would retain the service mission it already performs: Doling out benefits such as citizenship, work permits and the like. There is broad consensus within Congress, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform and others in the immigration arena that reorganization is needed of the INS's often conflicting missions of service and enforcement. The Clinton administration and subcommittee Democrats favor a less radical plan that would keep both missions under the same roof, albeit with separate chains of command. A split of the sometimes overlapping missions could prove counterproductive, backers of the administration plan contend. "I don't think there is any question about the fact all of us believe some restructuring is appropriate," said Rep. Melvin Watt of North Carolina, the top Democrat on the immigration panel. "The question is what restructuring makes sense." Watt questioned the speed with which the panel is moving to make major changes in the immigration agency. He accused the chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, of caving to pressure from Rogers, who chairs the appropriations panel that funds INS. Smith denied undue haste. The subcommittee, by voice vote, rejected the administration proposal. That plan, which INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said she is working to implement, would keep the 29,000-person agency intact. But it would place enforcement and benefits operations under distinct chains of command with separate offices and staffs. Both operations would retain access to INS databases and would remain under the oversight of INS headquarters. Smith dismissed the Meissner plan as "simply not much more than moving organizational boxes around on a chart." It is questionable whether the House, which must shoehorn a lengthy list of must-pass bills into a rapidly dwindling legislative calendar, will complete action on the reorganization this year. Even if it does, the Senate Justice immigration subcommittee chairman, Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., has indicated he is not contemplating seriously revamping the agency before next year. Senate Backs Off Border Logs, (posted 8/3/98) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted Thursday night to rescind a provision in the 1996 immigration law that would have required the government to gather records of all foreigners crossing at Canadian and Mexican border checkpoints. Under the provision, the Immigration and Naturalization Service this fall was to begin keeping a record of foreigners departing and arriving in the United States so it can identify those overstaying their visas. Northern state lawmakers, however, expressed fears that the stiffer checkpoint requirements would cause traffic jams and result in lost trade across the border with Canada. In November, the House voted 325-90 to delay the requirement until Oct. 1, 1999. But Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., said that was not enough. He introduced legislation to block the requirement while also attempting to meet the concerns of officials along the U.S.-Mexican border who favor stricter immigration laws. Bill to Hire Foreigners Runs Into Turbulence: White House Dislikes Compromise Measure, (posted 8/3/98) By Marcus Stern WASHINGTON-Lobbyists for the high-tech industry began yesterday with victory at hand in their long quest for congressional approval to hire more foreign workers. But by day's end, they were in disarray and facing possible defeat. Key House and Senate Republicans had reached a final agreement yesterday morning shortly after midnight to increase the flow of foreign professionals by as many as 190,000 over the next six years. Votes were promptly scheduled in the House and Senate by GOP leaders and the bill was to be laid on President Clinton's desk over the weekend. But industry's apparent victory unraveled during the course of the hot afternoon. The key moment came when the White House, after reading the 34-page compromise, issued a veto threat late yesterday that was even stronger than one it had issued on July 16. "Unfortunately, this Republican agreement fails to provide adequate training and protections for U.S. workers," said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. "In its current form, the president would have no choice but to veto it. We are working on proposed revisions to the Republicans'bill and would like to address the skills shortage before Congress leaves on recess." But that seemed increasingly unlikely as the day wore on. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a longtime opponent of the program, which allows 65,000 new foreign professionals to enter the country each year and stay for up to six years, announced plans to block debate on the bill in the Senate. The bill would greatly expand the H-1B program, so-named for the visa the foreign workers are issued. Meanwhile, in the House, Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, a member of the Judiciary Committee, began urging other Republicans to oppose the GOP compromise. Sources said he wanted tighter restrictions on the program. He could not be reached for comment late yesterday. But by the end of the day, the House Republican leadership, which had hoped to move the GOP compromise quickly to the president's desk for his signature, had cancelled a vote scheduled for today on the compromise legislation. The Senate is planning to recess this weekend. Even if the House reschedules the vote for next week, the Senate would not be around to approve the bill. Therefore, it seemed likely late yesterday that final action would be put off until Congress returns from its break in early September. Some warned that the window of opportunity might be closed by then. "How many people want to vote for 190,000 new foreign workers two months before an election?" said a key Republican staff member. Companies lobbying for the bill, including Qualcomm, San Diego's wireless communications giant, had been forced to stop hiring under the H-1B program May 11 because the annual allotment of 65,000 visas for all U.S. employers had been used. The high-tech companies say they must hire foreign workers because there are not enough skilled Americans to fill the available jobs -- a claim critics dispute. The agreement reached yesterday would raise the cap on the number of new H-1B workers to 85,000 this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30; 95,000 in 1999; 105,000 in 2000; and 115,000 in fiscal years 2001 and 2002. The annual cap then would return to the current level of 65,000. The GOP compromise would require some-but not all-companies using the H-1B program to affirm that they had taken reasonable steps to recruit American workers before hiring a foreign worker. They also would have to report to the government that they had not laid off an American worker with similar skills in the same geographic area 90 days before or after applying for the H-1B worker. But critics of the bill yesterday said fewer than 5 percent of the companiesusing the H-1B program would be forced to abide by the new rules. "This is a loophole for big companies to hire cheap indentured labor," said Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., an opponent. The compromise also would require companies to pay a $250 fee for each H-1B visa it receives for a foreign worker. The money would go into two funds for high-tech training and education. White House spokesman Siewert said the money raised by the fee would be insufficient. American Business for Legal Immigration, an industry group, had called the compromise "fair and flexible" and urged Congress to approve it quickly. The United States Needs Fewer/More Workers, (posted 8/3/98) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS Politics, plain and simple, is the art of lying. On this canvas, it matters little who loses or is sacrificed at the altar. The issue of immigration best illustrates this. Congress is considering an amendment to an appropriations bill that would bring more "bracero" (guest) farm workers into the country. Separately, Congress has also agreed to permit high-tech companies to import hundreds of thousands of high-skilled foreign workers. Oddly, these both come at a time of high unemployment in the agricultural sector and also in the middle of a national obsession with "sealing our borders." In this instance, perhaps "lying" is too harsh a word. How about double-dealing, or speaking with a forked tongue? Since 1993, politicos, led by California Gov. Pete Wilson and presidential wannabe Pat Buchanan, have stirred the country into a frenzy regarding the invading brown hordes. In an era of severe budget cuts, this has led to record-level spending by the Clinton administration for border enforcement activities -- $1 billion this year. Little of that money has seemingly gone toward naturalizing the 2 million-plus immigrants, some of whom have been waiting four years to become U.S. citizens. Instead of attempting to clear this logjam, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has come up with an anti-citizenship bill, HR-2837, that, as a result of increased red tape, would make it more difficult to become a U.S. citizen and easier to revoke the citizenship of new Americans. "That's the next group-people who are attempting to become citizens-who will be under attack," said Lilian Hirales, policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of La Raza. Because of our contradictory policies, immigrants by the hundreds continue to die trying to cross rivers, mountains and the scorching Southwestern desert. And they are still subject to vigilante attacks, as is evidenced by the ongoing San Diego trial of several ex-Marines charged with assaulting workers at an Oceanside migrant camp in 1995. So do we have too many immigrants, or not? What we're actually dealing with is a 100-year cyclical phenomenon. "Big-business interests want cheap foreign labor," said Hirales. "They don't want to pay decent wages or provide safe working conditions," she added. Whenever the workers are no longer needed, the work force becomes expendable, especially during hard times. This time around, despite a prosperous decade, the nation's anti-immigrant fervor has failed to subside. Historically, undocumented workers have been strategically employed where no one else will work, or as a weapon to discourage union organizing. The idea that business needs "guest workers" flies in the face of 10 percent to 30 percent unemployment among farm workers in California and Texas. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Worker's union (UFW), recently told members of the San Joaquin Valley Latino Vote organization, which recently met in Bakersfield, Calif., that "if the politicians want to create a guest-worker program, they should begin by providing amnesty for undocumented workers who are already here. It's not right to create a captive slave program." The UFW was not able to begin organizing until the 20-year bracero program ended in 1964. Despite much progress as a result of the UFW's organizing efforts such as toilets in the fields, higher wages, and medical and retirement benefits-it is still involved in fierce organizing struggles. A new bracero program would make it even more difficult to organize, noted Huerta. Currently, the UFW is contesting a July election in northern California where the Agricultural Worker's Committee (AWC) won the right to represent 1,200 workers at Coastal Berry Co. The UFW, which stayed off the ballot, asked the Agricultural Labor Relation's Board (ALRB) to cancel the election, charging that the AWC was violently intimidating the workers. The ALRB refused. The UFW is now petitioning the board to disallow the election and to investigate whether the AWC is being bankrolled by the Western Growers Association and other powerful growers. Sen. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., said after chairing a hearing into the charges: "What we learned is that the ALRB is in some kind of collusion with the growers. It's a dysfunctional board." The UFW may have trouble in the fields (though it has won 16 elections in a row), but the nonviolent legacy of its co-founder, Cesar Chavez, continues to inspire millions. This Sept. 2, the Cesar Chavez Public Policy High School in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to open. Perhaps the students' first assignment should be to answer whether this country has too many or too few immigrants. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE The Cesar Chavez Public Policy High School is still looking for volunteers and support from organizations and individuals nationwide. They can be contacted at: 202-645-3067 or RSalc28449 PLEASE NOTE NEW CONTACT INFO: Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com
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